Tips for Dealing with Garden Pests

Leaf Miners

A common garden pest that you may encounter in your planter boxes, are leaf miners. A leaf miner is any one of numerous species of insects in which the larval stage lives in, and eats, the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths, sawflies, and flies, though some beetles also exhibit this behavior. They typically are attracted to swiss chard, apple, beets, citrus, garlic, onion, spinach and tomato crops.These pests will lay small white eggs behind the leaves of the plant, once the eggs hatch the pest will crawl in the leaves causing translucent blotches and wilting plants.

Try This!

A low-cost and environmentally safe method to reduce their infestation is to check and rinse your crops of their eggs. You will notice tiny white eggs behind the leaves of your crops. Gently rinse leaves with water to wash away eggs.

Slugs & Snails

Slugs and snails are very damaging garden pests that can be found throughout most of the world, most often in temperate, humid climates. A member of our backyard garden program uses beer and dish soap to help with these pests.

Try This!

In a bowl, she mixes a can of stale beer with a few drops of liquid dish soap. You can use a recycled glass jar or plastic bowl and nustle it in garden at a 45-degree angle with the rim flesh with the soil. The slugs will crawl into the bowl and drown in the mixture.

Let us know if these tips are helpful! If you have suggestions and tips for how to troubleshoot common problems in your garden or have questions about garden practices contact info@cityslickerfarms.org and we will be in contact as soon as we can.